Scott Pilgrim is a popular, award-winning indie comic book series about a Canadian slacker of the same name. Scott's comfortable life mooching off his friends and roommate is thrown into chaos when American ninja delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers moves into town and starts using his dreams as a shortcut to other places. To be free to date her, Scott has to defeat her seven evil exes in battle (they have a league) and quite possibly get a life.

Lucas Lee (he caters his fight with Scott!) but not so in the movie. There he just offers to get coffee for his mooks while they beat up Scott, though not before telling Ramona that Scott 'seems nice'.

Gideon Graves can come off as this as long as you ignore the fact that his invitation to Scott was mostly to gloat.

Matthew Patel sent a nice email letting Scott know in advance that he was coming, and explaining the situation.

Scott and Wallace's "hole in concrete" apartment fosters much confusion in viewers/readers. Also, Honest Ed's is a real place.

Think it's strange that a hardcore vegan would be so willing to secretly eat meat, magical powers nonwithstanding? Google "recovering vegans" and you'll find many stories involving vegans who realized they lacked the resolve to sustain their diet, and to avoid backlash from the vegan community, started eating meat in secret. Whether or not O'Malley was aware of this though, is up for debate; Todd Ingrams hypocrisy fits at little too well into his personality for it to be a coincidence.

Scott's face-off against Gideon within Ramona's mind in Volume 6 is a parody of this trope.

Ramona's fight with Roxanne in Subspace in Volume 4 also has elements of this trope.

Anachronism Stew: Minor example, likely a result of Comic-Book Time: For exactly one panel in the fifth volume, released in 2009, Scott wears a shirt with the bassist icon from Rock Band, which came out in 2007, despite the series taking place in 2004 and 2005.

And Your Reward Is Clothes: In Volume 6, Scott unlocks a new T-Shirt by leveling up. This actually works out pretty well, since he spilled booze all over the shirt he arrived in, and reluctantly put on a replacement shirt emblazoned with Gideon's logo right before his fight with Gideon. It was also covered in his own blood and had a hole in it from when Gideon stabbed him to death.

7. It becomes a little more obvious in Volume 6 (ironically) when Gideon is revealed to have 7 exes of his own — six of them innocent victims sealed away in tubes (Ramona being the seventh), but anyway... And when Gideon is finally defeated he explodes into $7,777,777.00 CAD (that's seven sevens).

Gideon's initials are also all Gs — G is the seventh letter of the alphabet. (Though co-incidentially all three of his names are six letters long.)

Rotate Gideon's Triforce clockwise and it becomes three 7s instead of three Gs.

Arc Words: Many variations of the phrase "precious little x". Starting from Volume 1, there are Precious Little Life, Precious Little Ho-Bag, Precious Little Wallace, Precious Little Nickname, and many more. It may be just a catchphrase between all the characters, but the phrase appears in at least one instance of every volume.

Artificial Limbs: Lynette punches the highlights out of Knives' hair with her bionic arm. It's also the only thing left behind when she teleports away at the end of Vol. 3.

Art Shift: The story of how Todd and Envy grew up with each other in volume 3 is shown with the characters being drawn normally but with everything else being drawn in crayon.

Auto Erotica: It's revealed in Volume 2 that Scott lost his virginity to Kim in the back of a car.

Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Near the end of Volume 6, it's revealed that Ramona spent her time away from Scott the exact same way he did — by moping, slacking, and sleeping all day. Scott's friends declare them a perfect couple.

Bag of Holding: Ramona's purse, elaborately lampshading the fact that it contains a hammer (+2 against girls), a titanium baseball bat (+1 against blondes), and even Scott himself. "Capacity: unknown." It also serves as a passage to Ramona's head in subspace, which contains a giant Gideon Graves, whom Scott Pilgrim battles.

Banister Slide: Scott does it and knocks out his brother, mistaking him for Gideon.

Scott may have been more of this than he previously thought, due to Gideon tampering with his memories. Especially in the case of Kim, when he beat up her current meek Asian boyfriend in order to go out with her back in high school. Scott is also like this toward Knives, with him dating her for very shallow reasons, then becoming emotionally unavailable for her the moment Ramona skates into his life, and then finally cheating on her and dumping her in a pretty dickish way.

Scott in Volume 4 after Dominique gives him a job at the Happy Avocado (a vegetarian restaurant where Stephen Stills works), although the job is being a dishwasher. In fact, Scott lets out two, and the second one is given something of a Distant Reaction Shot.

Scott lets out another one when Dominique re-hires him after he got fired for some commotion he sparked when he saw Ramona and Roxy eating together.

Apparently Ramona. She experimented a bit, anyway. Also expresses her attraction to Kim Pine in several occasions.

As well as Kim and Knives, to an extent. They were pretty smashed at the time. Scott is shocked; he leaves without being noticed and there's a caption reading "Let Us Never Speak of This Again." The game makes it a character assist for Kim, and in her ending she turns down Scott to walk off into the sunset with Knives.

And Stephen Stills, who has dated both Julie Powers and Joseph.

Scott Pilgrim recognizes that the beginning of his relationship with Wallace Wells was "quite gay", but when asked for more data, he always answers something similar to "I don't have to answer to that!". We're never shown what actually happened after crashing at Scott's place drunk like skunks, but we're told that Wallace Wells has a gift for seducing otherwise straight men... do the math. Okay, maybe they didn't do much, but if they didn't get hot and heavy that night, they sure were on the brink of it.

But Not Too Bi: Despite this, all the characters are explicitly proclaimed to either be straight ("it was a phase") or gay, with no in-between.

Black and Grey Morality: It's pretty obvious from day one that Scott is kind of an asshole, but you still root for him, seeing as how his enemies, with one or two possible exceptions, are way more unpleasant than he is, and because the the trials he faces make him gradually grow out of being an asshole.

Black Bug Room: Gideon's money-maker is a a method to induce this chronically within a person. It has the added side-effect of allowing access to subspace.

Bland-Name Product: Mostly averted since real Canadian brands are frequently mentioned, but there are exceptions.

The LG billboard in Dundas Square reads "LC".

In Volume 5, Knives is seen picking up a soda from a "Choke" vending machine.

Whenever someone asks how he and Ramona met, Scott usually says some variation of "it's a long story, go read Volume 1." Whenever a Chekhov's Gun from a previous book gets used, someone will usually refer to that book by its number. Scott has also referred to certain friends as "secondary characters."

During Scott's battle in book 3 when he's losing against Todd, Scott remarks that only a poorly set up Deus ex Machina plot can save him. It does.

In the opening of one of the books, two background characters are making comments about the titles.

Scott is walking somewhere at night in Volume 2, and in one panel we see the moon. But it doesn't look right; there seem to be two big holes in it. It just seems weird on the first read, and nobody in the book says anything about it at the time. Near the end of Volume 3, however, we find out why it looks like that and what it has to do with the story.

In the last volume, Scott asks Knives if she likes Stephen Stills, and she bursts out laughing for no real apparent reason. At the end of that book it is revealed that he came out as gay offscreen in Vol. 5.

In Vol. 5, Ramona asks for Scott to charge her phone. Later in the volume, she checks her phone to see that it's still at low battery.

Volume 5 has a dream that puts Scott in the same desert he found himself in back in the first volume, once again lamenting that he is "so alone".

When Wallace is first telling Scott about Lucas Lee, Scott confuses him first with Luke Wilson (the actor), and then with a guy who was in a band that Sex Bob-Omb played with (also named Luke Wilson). Some time later, Scott runs into the latter Luke Wilson, and asks if he is Lucas Lee (mind you, this is after Scott had met, fought, and defeated Lee).

Canada, Eh?: Written by a Canadian, so it averts most stereotypes, but has the occasional "eh?"

When Scott hears about Ramona's fight with Knives in the library, he's in his bed and gets so excited he spills his cocoa everywhere. Uhh.

In Vol. 3, Ramona and Envy get into this kind of fight when their conversation goes south.

Cerebus Retcon: Scott's quirky high-school flashbacks turn quite glum with the revelation Kim gives Scott in the final book. Turns out the boy that kidnapped her was just someone she was friends with that Scott beat up when he saw the two together. There was no major confrontation or epic fight that was earlier described. It's later revealed Gideon "spruced up" the memory when he went inside Scott's mind.

Cerebus Syndrome: The fifth book starts dipping into some pretty heavy territory (such as fidelity), compared to the lightheartedness of the earlier volumes. In all fairness, this is around the same time that Scott realizes he has to grow the hell up and stop being such a manchild in order to save his relationships with Ramona and the rest of his friends. Even more so in the sixth book, especially with scenes like Scott being killed with his own sword halfway through the book.

Scott is slowly — very slowly — growing from a complete slacker to a quasi-functional person. By the end of the series, he comes to accept the fact that he's been a narcissistic jerk throughout much of his life, and now strives to change for the better.

Also applies to Ramona Flowers and Knives Chau (especially in the last volume), and the secondary characters: Wallace is noticeably more care-free after he starts dating Mobile, Stephen Stills is somewhat more neurotic and self-conscious, and Kim is becoming less cold towards Scott.

Played straight with Stephen Stills, who had his cooking moment with the vegan shepherd's pie scene in book 2, and is seen later working at the same restaurant as Scott and being complimented by customers for his cooking.

After Scott earns the Power of Love and goes up to fight Roxy, he says, "Now I'm glad I picked that longsword proficiency in grade five!"

Headbutting. Scott uses it to kill Todd in Volume 3, and then uses it in Volume 6 with the Glow to break Gideon out of his giant, twisted, godly form.

Christmas Cake: Played straight in a bizarre fashion. In Vol. 4, Scott is sitting on a bench looking for some drink money right before he meets Lisa. Two girls walk by, one remarking that Scott is kind of cute, and the other responds, "Ew, he's like 25."

Wallace: Can you be serious for one second? Scott (drooling): I like elevators.

Combination Attack: How Scott and Ramona finish off Gideon. It's a slash in the shape of an "X". An X-Slash if you will. The twins Kyle and Ken also do this with techniques like the Double Hurricane Kick, and Simul-Punch. Also known as the "Ex-slash" if it's possible not to notice.

Comically Missing the Point: The Vegan Police rush in to remove Todd Ingram's vegan superpowers for eating gelato. Envy notes that Todd also ate chicken parmesan, but the police aren't sure whether parmesan is an animal or not, so they don't punish him for that one.

Comic-Book Time: Lampshaded and mocked in the fifth volume, as the Real world and the Scott Pilgrim world take on the last Sex Bob-Omb show collide with hilarious results.

Sandra: A whole generation of bands have come and gone since you guys opened for the Demonheads in '05! Scott: That was this May!

Continuity Nod: Scott's love of the X-Men, shown in Volume 1, is shown again in Volume 5 in full force. He tells Ramona the storylines of the demon Belasco kidnapping Colossus' sister Illyana and the time the X-Men set up base in Australia.

Continuity Porn: The series is loaded with little details, some of which speak to each other over separate books.

Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Knives leaps and attacks Envy right before she's about to finish Ramona. Subverted in that it doesn't accomplish much and Knives ends up hitting the wall.

Scott unlocks an achievement for defeating the Katayanagi twins at the same time.

They also give a $2.00 "twin bonus"... no, wait, that's likely independent of the achievement.

Gets a Shout-Out in the video game, where defeating both of them at once earns you the 'Twin Dragons' Achievement/Trophy.

Cranky Landlord: Scott and Wallace's landlord is a jerkass of the highest order. Considering the boys don't seem to actually pay him rent and he still lets them stay until their contract lapses, at which point he offers a per month deal...

Crapsaccharine World: The entire World of Ham looks playful and fun at first, until you realize just how selfish, violent, and lawless most of the main cast actually is. Even the heroes. Lampshaded several times. For example in Volume 2, when Ramona rips a metal pole off the ground to fight Knives, Stacey exclaims, "Are you crazy? You can't just tear up giant metal art objects like that!"

Critical Existence Failure: Scott gets thrown through brick walls, beaten up by a giant robot, etc. and manages to come out relatively unscathed.

Crossover: Scott makes a one panel cameo in another Oni Press graphic novel entitled PENG (which is NOT by Bryan Lee O'Malley, but rather by Corey Lewis, who also did the graphic novel series Sharknife, which takes place in the same continuity as PENG).

Darkest Hour: In Volume 6, ironically titled "Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour"; the entire first half of the story is devoted to the aftermath of Scott's breakup with Ramona and his attempt to forget about his past and move on. The finest hour comes at the end of the story.

Dark Is Evil: Both Roxy and Envy dress in a dark, somewhat gothic-inspired style, the latter to accentuate her Femme Fatale persona.

Dark Is Not Evil: Nega-Scott. His purpose is to make Scott accept and learn from his mistakes instead of ignoring them all the time and going through a cycle. Rather than beat him up like the Exes, Nega-Scott is absorbed into Scott, so he can stop tuning out the negative impacts he had on Kim, Lisa, Envy, Knives, and finally, Ramona.

Everyone in The Clash at Demonhead gives one to Knives when she tells them what a huge fan she is of them.

Ramona gives one to Kim in volume 4 when she brings up a poster of two girls kissing. It's even accompanied by "GLARE" being shown in big text, probably considering Ramona was wearing opaque glasses that obscured her eyes from the reader.

Kim to Scott in Vol. 6 after Scott fails to continue to not be her mom.

Deface of the Moon: Todd Ingram punched two craters in the moon with his Vegan powers, one for Ramona and one for Envy.

Delayed Causality: Roxanne takes a few seconds to fall apart after being cut up by Scott.

Volume 4's inside cover has a character guide to help readers potentially catch up to what's happening in the story. When it comes to Wallace, two of his characteristics are "the gay roommate" and "is gay".

Designated Girl Fight: Ramona's only female to male brawl would be Gideon. That's okay though, since the chick fights are awesome.

Kim Pine is found captured by evil-doers twice. They are keeping her trapped, in shackles or otherwise, and waiting for a contender to show up. Although the first time, she may not have been captured at all, considering she was dating the guy. Scott is just an Unreliable Narrator. Given the constant references to video games, it is natural that Scott Pilgrim has to Save the Princess.

This trope is subverted with Ramona. It's not often in a work of fiction that the girl being fought for is a more capable fighter than the guy fighting for her, but Ramona just might be. She's a true Action Girl, at the very least, though this isn't really revealed until Volume 2.

Double Standard: Ramona chews out Scott for dating both her and Knives Chau at the beginning of their relationship, despite the fact that she cheated on several of her evil exes in the past, and making out with Roxie while Ramona and Scott were going out in Volume 4 (not to mention her dating Kyle behind Ken's back and vice-versa). Ramona is aware of the double standard, and everything that it implies about her, and most of her story arc is trying to distance herself from the bad stuff she's done in her past.

In Volume 3, Gideon slips in a cameo (shrouded in shadows) during Todd's flashback sequence at Honest Ed's and right after Scott defeats Todd. He also slips in another one in Volume 4 when Scott crashes Ramona's subconscious.

The colour version sort-of confirms that Envy has an Early-Bird Cameo in Vol. 1. Scott writes a white-washed version of her into his dream of Sex Bob-Omb being an actual famous band. She's the redhead on the keyboard (the same instrument played by the real-life Envy).

Enemy Mine: Wallace and Ramona become friends because of their shared hatred for Envy.

Enemy Without: Nega-Scott. Has the "fusion" resolution, as Kim points out that if Scott killed his darkness and forgot about it, he would just make the same mistakes over and over again.

Even Evil Has Standards: For all of her insults towards Scott & Ramona in the preceding five volumes, Julie is visibly shocked & horrified when Gideon kills Scott & runs Ramona through with a katana, a reaction shared by Envy. Averted with Joseph, as he simply doesn't seem to care.

Possessiveness and jealousy are the main motivations driving the League of Evil Exes. Especially Gideon, who just happened to have founded the group in the pettiest of ways: by posting an angry rant on the internet.

And the reason why Gideon had six girls in People Jars and wants Ramona to be the seventh? He wanted to go on a date with all of them at once.

Fanservice: A few to count, namely the saucy romantic sessions Scott has with some of the girls as well as some fanservice scenes. The rather hot and heavy moment in Volume 5 and not to mention the part where he jumped into Ramona's mind. Although pre-art change Scott Pilgrim had at least one sex scene per volume, relatively work-safe of course.

Faux Affably Evil: Gideon. He calls Scott buddy, and compliments him on his shirt (both sarcastically). Also, when he kills Scott, he buys everyone a drink. Gideon's compliment on the shirt relates to the fact that it bears Gideon's initials: GGG.

Femme Fatale: Parodied with Ramona, Envy and Knives. Scott seems to be a magnet for the type. Though it should be noted that Envy and Knives didn't fit the trope when they first started dating Scott and only became that way later.

Gideon also tells Envy something along the lines of "you know putting you in those outfits is sexually fulfilling for me". Envy replies that that's all that he finds sexually fulfilling. See Living Doll Collector.

The Brute: Lucas Lee, who appears to be the tallest and strongest of the exes, and is the Wake Up Call that the rest of the exes are not going to be as pathetic as Matthew Patel was. That said, he is unusually friendly and uninterested in fighting for the role of The Brute.

The Dark Chick: Roxanne Richter, the only girl of the team and who seems to be more off doing her own thing as opposed to the rest.

The Sixth Ranger/Tagalong Kid: Matthew Patel. He gets a spot on the team because they kinda have to include all of Ramona's exes, despite the fact that the rest of the League seems to dislike him or think he's useless.

Gotta Kill Them All: The premise of the series. In order for Scott to start building a real relationship, he's got to deal with her seven exes — and by "deal with", he means annihilate.

Grand Romantic Gesture: Todd (evil ex #3) proclaimed his love for Ramona by punching a hole in the moon. He also does it for his current girlfriend Envy — since she thought he'd only done it for her, this comes back to bite him in the ass.

Have I Mentioned I am Gay?: While we do see Wallace kissing quite a few guys, some readers got a little tired of him being referred to as Scott's "cool gay roommate" constantly. But that's the joke, and Scott's an idiot.

Heroic B.S.O.D.: Starting Volume 4, the development of Scott's relationship with Ramona turns him into a poster-boy of this trope as he suffers from this repeatedly with increasingly brutal aftermath every time. This is also what summons Nega-Scott. By the end of Volume 5, there are many hints of Scott turning clinically insane, and finally in Volume 6, the half of, if not, the entire storyline could be summed up as "Scott's quest to get away fromthe increasing brink ofDespair Event Horizon".

Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of Scott's dreams in Volume 6 has Ramona as an angel descending from the skies with the Power of Love to plunge it right through Scott's chest and simultaneously pin him to the ground.

In Volume 5 at the Happy Avocado, Stephen Stills says that he only wants to discuss Knives and the band...only for him to then say that he's referring to the knives that he's currently using to chop onions.

Informed Attractiveness: Scott and Ramona. Several characters have the hots for them - including each other - but due to the art style's Generic Cuteness they don't look any different from everybody else in the comic.

Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Mr. Chau, a Chinese ninja who wields a katana. If it helps, the author is himself Asian, so Mr. Chau is probably a spoof of this trope. Or maybe he simply abides by the Rule of Cool, like everybody and everything else in the series. And to be fair, other characters (including Scott) use, if not actual katanas, then katana-esque swords.

Ironic Echo: Ken Katayanagi's "I don't think we've been properly...introduced" line in Volume 5 first appears at the Masquerade Ball when they first run into Ramona and Kim, and then returns for much more sinister effect when the Katayanagis kidnap Kim.

Item Get: When Scott defeats Lucas Lee and gets a skateboard. He can't use it though, because he never acquired a skateboard proficiency.

It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Defeating enemies causes them to explode into coins. Also, being a vegan gives one telekinesis.

Gideon lives this trope. His mania doesn't just stop at acquiring things (and people), it's all about injecting some aspect of himself into it like he's marking his territory. See: his triple-G inverted Triforce, dressing Envy in costumes according to his tastes, implanting a fragment of himself in Ramona's head, and in The Movie, retooling the newly-professional Sex Bob-Omb from a quirky garage rock band to a generic gothic My Chemical Romance-style punk band.

Scott himself is another good example; although he eventually grows out of it.

Todd Ingram is very insensitive towards people, claiming that because he is a rock star, he is better than other people. He even cheats on his girlfriend Envy Adams with the drummer of their band. To top it all off, he telekinetically throws Envy across the room when she confronts and lashes out at him over his infidelity. (Although to be fair, she did successfully Groin Attack him immediately before he did that.)

Gideon Graves. A manipulating, sexually domineering creep. His first subtitle is even "Gideon Graves (31 Years old) Occupation: Asshole".

Gideon stole the Power of Love! What a dick!

Played with in the case of our almost Jerk Ass protagonist. Scott is undeniably likable and sympathetic, but a big part of the story is exposing and dealing with the fact that he's also kind of a dick.

Julie Powers. Her main personality quirk is being an absolute bitch to everyone.

Minor character Monique is one too. Her behavior is kind of like what Julie would be if she were an extra.

Envy. Especially in Volume 6 after she reveals that her and Scott's break-up was a mutual occurrence and Scott simply whitewashed his role in it out of the flashbacks seen by the reader in Volume 3.

And Scott himself.

Jerk Jock: Subverted with Lucas Lee, who turns out to be quite the decent fellow, and is easily the nicest of Ramona's evil exes, going so far as to offer to throw the fight (for a fee) when it becomes clear that Scott is completely outclassed. However, played completely straight with Todd (who, if he isn't a jock, at least dresses like one...). Until Scott accidentally pressed Lucas' Berserk Button, that is...

Scott Pilgrim himself, of course. Being charming and sweet in an Adorkable way doesn't hide the fact that he's shallow, self-centered, a shameless mooch to everyone of his acquaintance, and willfully oblivious to the damage his "precious little life" causes others. Through Character Development, he... doesn't exactly rise above this, but undeniable that there's a little less Jerk and a little more Heart of Gold by the end. Kim Pine turns out to be one in Volume 6 as well.

Also Ramona, who admits to being a bitch in the past and also tries to downplay her own responsibility in the failure of her relationships, but is actively trying to be better since moving to Toronto.

Envy too turns out to be one towards the end of the story, as she starts talking to Scott again and the events of their break-up are revealed not to be entirely her fault - at least, not so much as in it was Scott who started their argument. In the end, after realizing the kind of person Gideon was ("He was an asshole" - her words), she mends her fences with Scott for good.

Gideon is glitzy, glamorous, and wears a snow white suit jacket. He's also a major dick.

Todd exudes white Vegan energy.

Limited Social Circle: Highly averted, as the characters have a subclique of main characters and then they each have their own little circle of friends, and you've got friends and friends of friends — most of which add some realism, but don't really contribute anything aside from confusion. Because of the black and white art, it can be hard to tell all the Loads and Loads of Characters apart. Luckily, we get little captions reminding us of names on a regular basis, and in the front of the third book, there is a helpful graph explaining the characters' relations to each other. Lampshaded a number of times: Some minor characters have captions like "I don't know this girl" or "Who cares?" In Volume 4, when Scott walks into Wallace's apartment, he finds Wallace in the company of two friends - a male and female - neither of whom are named and instead have giant Question Marks floating over their heads.

Living Doll Collector: Gideon keeps all of his ex-girlfriends in People Jars and plans for Ramona to be next. A big part of the reason the reader is still cheering for Scott in spite of his occasionally dysfunctional personality.

Loads and Loads of Characters: There are a lot of tangential background characters who are "friends of friends", who pop up for a panel or two or are discussed but have no impact on anything and then disappear. This was lampshaded in one cast scene where the captions pointed out a few minor background characters, and one had "I don't know this girl" over her.

Logic Bomb: Joseph to Scott in volume 6: "I'm just saying if we die out there, I'll murder you."

As evidenced by Ramona's seven evil exes. This almost happens to Scott as well, but was averted through some Epiphany Therapy in Vol. 6.

Subverted with Knives, who in Volume 2 appears to make a Face–Heel Turn by ambushing Ramona in a jealous rage, but she later settles down and goes back to being simply a little bit Yandere.

Also, it might be hinted that Ramona's other six exes weren't really evil so much as Gideon manipulated them into singling her out as the sole culprit of their failed relationships (though the episode with Kyle and Ken was a dick move on her part, if we're to believe them).

Love Redeems: The reason Scott undergoes Character Development at all is because of his newly discovered love for Ramona, and his journey- dare I say "pilgrimage?"- to attain her love, and Ramona develops once she reciprocates these feelings too. By the series end, although both are still far from perfect, they resolve to be better people to each other and to their friends.

Magic Skirt: Averted. Ramona's skirt flies up and reveals her tights in one panel.

Made of Evil: Comeau's skull ring, which he apparently got "from the future".

Magikarp Power: The reason Scott didn't have a Skateboard Proficiency? He has a Sword Proficiency instead. Convenient when one actually shows up.

Man Child: This is Scott's principle character flaw. While the first few books seem to embrace and even flatter his childishness, it's only upon looking back after reading the whole series and witnessing his entire character arc that you realize how harshly it was actually mocking his immaturity.

Meaningful Name: Kim Pine is pining for Scott and Knives Chau fights with knives. Scott Pilgrim is another: the book is all about his pilgrimage from self serving slacker to... well, someone approaching a responsible adult, anyway.

Mr. Chau goes after Scott because Knives' aunt mentioned that she saw Knives dating a white guy (Young Neil) and he drew the wrong conclusion from her Stalker Shrine.

Scott keeps mistaking various people, even his own brother, for Gideon and attacking them.

Money Spider: The villains explode in a shower of coins, for no apparent reason other than that's what happens when someone gets killed. Lampshaded when people comment on how it ends up being barely enough to handle cab fare, a coffee, etc. But only for Patel. The other ex-boyfriends give out much more after defeat. Gideon's death rewards $7,777,777. Still spoofed, as the characters lament on how it's all in coins. Gideon's coin shower actually hurts the audience due to sheer volume and the height from which they drop.

Ramona, though each volume fills us in on things, she never really explains exactly what happened between her and Gideon in New York. In a way her mysteriousness makes sense in light of what she reveals in Volume 6, how she's afraid of becoming "stuck" in her life, so she constantly reinvents herself and keeps her past at arm's-length in order to try and outrun her fears. Her past is a mystery because even she would prefer it that way.

Interestingly, Scott is the same way, though in his case, it's less about being stuck than simply not liking his past self, so he constantly reinvents himself in an effort to be a better person. Except he's actually kind of a terrible person, which he eventually comes to realize and deal with.

As Ramona herself puts it: "What kind of idiot would knowingly date a girl named Knives?"

Possibly Envy Adams as well, but in her case it's only a nickname, though a self-applied one... which might make it worse). Her real first name is Natalie and her middle initial is V. N-V Adams. Ramona Victoria Flowers jokes that she should change her name to RV for the same reason.

NEET: For the first few volumes, Scott Pilgrim meanders through life with no job and no effort to get the training or experience for a job, to the ever decreasing patience of the friends on whose generosity he depends.

Nightmare Sequence: Scott's had several throughout the series, but his scariest one was in Volume 6 when he got impaled through the chest with the Power of Love by an angelic Ramona, pinning him to the ground and leaving him alone and stuck in the middle of a desert. Sharp-toothed monsters start circling around him, which are revealed to be Envy, Knives, and Kim. They then proceed to eat his limbs while he is completely unable to do anything.

90% of Your Brain is filled with curds and whey, which is why Todd's veganism allows him psychic powers.

Nintendo Hard: The Tie-In game. Even on the easiest mode. Try to pass the whole game without saving and without continuing on single player. Unless, of course, you actually purchase some stat upgrades at (un)reasonable costs.

No Accounting for Taste: Stephen Stills and Julie have a pretty vitriolic relationship. By book five, they've broken up "for like the fiftieth time!" Stephen Stills continues to be an example of this even after he comes out as gay — his new boyfriend, Joseph, is, if possible, even more bitchy than Julie.

Not Helping Your Case: When Ramona confronts Scott after finding out that he's been double-timing between her and Knives, she asks if he's been cheating on her with Knives. He immediately replies, as if it would help things, that he's been cheating on Knives with her. And that's the straw that breaks the camel's back.Good going, Scott.

Scott realizing he shares a lot of the petty qualities (such as infidelity) that Ramona's Evil Is Petty exes had. Comes to a head in Volume 6 when he finally fights Gideon. Scott thankfully comes to realize he doesn't like it.

Scott: Gideon.. .I think I understand you, man... And now I have to kill you.

Knives dates Young Neil for shallow reasons and then dumps him abruptly, just like Scott did with her, and Ramona did with almost all of her exes.

N-Word Privileges: Knives casually mentions that the Asians at her school are "fobbish".note FOB is an acronym for "fresh off the boat" and refers to Asians who act uncool and old-fashioned.

Obviously Evil: The Big Bad appears in silhouette in the first four volumes, and his last name is, of all things, Graves. His 'emblem' is also the video game equivalent of an inverted cross, and his three names each have six letters. Yep.

Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The "Knives Chau: 17 Years Old" joke lead many to believe that something important had to occur when her eighteenth birthday finally happened. Turns out, it happened a week before Volume 6 started.

Young Neil is the biggest offender of this, and the Running Gag makes a huge deal out of the fact that Scott finally acknowledged him as simply Neil in Volume 6; however, thanks to the art style, every single character in the series can be mistaken for mid-to-late teens unless you've read the comics or their bios. The Art Evolution doesn't help this.

Even more noticeable is when we finally meet Scott's parents, late in Volume 5. We only know Scott's dad is supposed to be older because his hair is receding a little and he has some lines on his forehead; otherwise, he'd be nearly indistinguishable from Stephen Stills.

Olive Garden: Scott's fairly ridiculous impression of Italy. For one thing, he seems to think the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in Rome. Also qualifies as Anachronism Stew.

Also happens in the game, with the girls replaced with the heads of the other Evil Exes (or at least some of them).

Onion Tears: Near the end of Volume 5, Scott is shown solemnly chopping onions with a completely stoic face while his eyes have turned into Ocular Gushers. A fellow worker comes and comforts him, to which he retorts by stating that it's the onions, not him.

Only Six Faces: Many characters look very similar. Possibly lampshaded by Knives when she says she only went out with Young Neil because he looks exactly like Scott. This gets confusing when Ramona cuts/dyes her hair every so often (the book is in black and white).

People Jars: Gideon keeps his ex-girlfriends cryogenically frozen and hooked up to some sort of ominous-looking machine that he draws his power from. There are seven tubes attached to the machine. Six are occupied, one stands empty and waiting for Ramona.

Plot Hole: Subverted in the video game; Ubisoft presumed the source material's plot was a Foregone Conclusion, and thus included subtle references only people familiar with it are likely to get.

Police Are Useless: Played straight, most of the time. Then double subverted with Todd Ingram, when he gets taken out by the Vegan Police, who charge him with eating gelato while ignoring the fact that he was trying to kill somebody.

In the form of a flaming sword... Subverted in that it's not enough to surmount the last Evil Ex-Boyfriend. That requires the far more important Power of Understanding, which allows Scott to see how similar he is to Gideon, and how that is a very bad thing.

It might have protected Wallace, Jimmy, and those in the immediate vicinity from the effects of "Last Song Kills Audience" in book 1 as well, although they weren't in as much danger as the name implies.

Precision F-Strike: Perhaps surprisingly for a series about the relationships of a group of twentysomethings, there's almost no swearing in the series. When somebody does swear, you know that things are serious.

Scott Pilgrim's three months of depression brought to you by the PSP Go◊.

Amazon.ca.

Let me offer you a drink. Coke Zero, right?

Pizza Pizza, Second Cup, Shoppers Drug Mart, CIBC, Honest Ed's, and many other well-known Canadian brands. Note that these companies didn't actually pay to be advertised in the book; O'Malley included them to add local colour to the story.

The League of Evil Exes, the antagonists of the series, are male versions of this trope. (Except for onegirl!) Gideon in particular seems to take rejection really badly, what with the whole plot to cryogenically freeze his ex-girlfriends so he can date them at his leisure later.

Psychopathic Manchild: Gideon. His psychopath and manchild sides are quite firmly divided, and it's only near the end, after he reveals his ex-girlfriend-containing People Jars, that they start to bleed together.

Punch Clock Villain: Lucas Lee. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, engages in small talk with the group, and even offers Scott some baby carrots and Ritz. Right after throwing him into Casa Loma's tallest tower.note He's actually considered evil because he's a sellout...or he sold out because he's evil...

The Rule of Cool moment of Gideon's defeat where he explodes into 7 7/9th million dollars worth of Canadian coins is quickly derailed when ...7 7/9th million dollars worth of Canadian coins come raining down on everyone's heads and mass panic ensues.

Ramona alludes a Reality Ensues moment in Vol. 3 when telling Scott about the time Todd punched a hole in the moon for her.

Scott: And then what happened? Ramona: Uhhh... About thirty pages of explosions and tidal waves.

Real Life Writes the Plot: Bryan Lee O'Malley was dating an American woman (cartoonist/comic book creator Hope Larson, currently his wife) and in a garage band when he started the series.

Really Gets Around: Scott is actually Ramona's ninth boyfriend. Aside from the evil exes, she once dated a guy called Doug, who wasn't evil, but a jerk, so she dumped him.

Relationship Upgrade: The source of the page image; Scott and Ramona near the end of Volume 4, when the two confess their love to each other.

Retcon: Simon Lee looks remarkably like Gideon in Volume 2. Later, this is explained away as Gideon messing with Scott's memories... except that he looks exactly the same in Kim's dream in the same volume, which never gets explained. Looks like the author's original intention was to make Simon and Gideon the same person, but he later changed his mind.

Retraux: The video game, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is a curious case. It's about as old-school beat'-em-up as you can get. Featuring chiptunes (by Anamanaguchi), 8-bit spriting, and so on. So much so that it's frequently likened to River City Ransom, and/or Streets of Rage/Final Fight, almost to the point of looking like a Spiritual Successor of them. This on a PS3 (and Xbox 360)... only. As a downloadable game. With none of the annoyances of a NES/SNES-era games. There is good reason to why a lot of people are interested in this one game. It's very much an old-school gamer's love letter.

Rockers Smash Guitars: At the end of Sex Bob-omb's performance at Sneaky Dee's (although we barely get to see any of it), Scott smashes his bass guitar.

Rogues Gallery: Ramona's league of evil exes are part of Scott's rogue gallery. They are Matthew Patel, Lucas Lee, Todd Ingram, Roxie Richter, Kyle and Ken Katayanagi, and Gideon Graves. Envy Adams also serves as part of the rogue's gallery for books 3 and 6, but makes a Heel Face Turn after realizing how much Gideon used her.

Roommate Com: It opens as a fairly traditional version, being about Scott and his cool gay roommate Wallace as Scott has a comic love life and hangs out with the people in his band. However, things swiftly take a turn for the surreal every time a fight breaks out and Scott has to battle his love interest's evil exes in order to date her.

Schoolgirl Lesbians: Ramona and Roxanne, in the past. "You had a SEXY PHASE?!" Also Knives, who is still in high school, and Kim, who is still taking college classes. Of course, out of the four of these girls, three are bi and only one is a lesbian.

Self-Deprecation: Scott performs one during the early records of the disc ("I know a guy who owns a car?") and the author managed to do it, with Ramona's "It's official, nothing cool ever happens in Canada." Remember, the author is canadian, so he broke the fourth wall and did some self depriciation humour very subtly.

Self-Disposing Villain: Some of the evil exes end up doing themselves in rather than Scott actually defeating them. For example: Scott challenges Lucas Lee to perform an impossible skateboard trick in the middle of their fight. Lucas would rather take on the challenge than lose face. The trick ends up killing him, as he goes too fast and bursts into coins. Another example is when Todd Ingram is about to defeat Scott (who acknowledges that he could only win via some Deus ex Machina), and right on cue, the Vegan Police shows up to take away Todd's powers for eating gelato the day before. Could also be a Karmic Death in the second case.

Here and there, what with Scott's previous exes never having proper closure until about the last volume.

Knives also probably had a short crush on Stephen Stills, seeing how he usually doesn't treat her like crap and even lets her drink with the folks. Young Neil even says "she's obsessed with Captain Homo these days".

This exchange from Volume 4:

Ramona: (drunkenly) Where'd Kim go? She seemed pretty wasted... Scott: Why are you always so interested in Kim? Ramona: I like Kim. Julie: Are you gonna marry her?? Ramona: Tooooooootally.

Sigil Spam: Gideon's triple G inverted Triforce logo appears all over the place in Volume 6. Scott even ends up sporting a triple G shirt (much to his chagrin) for the first round of his fight with Gideon.

Single-Minded Twins: Kyle and Ken. A deliberate choice on their part; Ramona played them against each other, and they vowed to work in tandem forever after that.

Slasher Smile: Near the end of Volume 5, Scott's reflection in the mirror while brushing his teeth at Stephen Stills's place is split into a normal, tired-looking Scott, then this... Even better, that half is Negascott, an embodiment of Scott's tendency to repress painful memories instead of learning from his mistakes.

The Smurfette Principle: One of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends is actually a girl. Justified by the fact Ramona is mostly heterosexual and only became bisexual during her "phase", so it's actually a surprise the group even includes a girl to begin with.

Envy's plays out through flashbacks in Vol. 3. It begins with her selling all her Anime paraphernalia and culminates with her asking Scott to start calling her "Envy" rather than Natalie. Then she breaks up with him and turns completely evil, showing the reader the exact moment she crossed the Moral Event Horizon that she'd been living on the other side of since she first appeared in the comic. Though she wasn't as bad as Scott made her to be. In Volume 6, it is implied that Scott "wasn't a paragon of virtue either" and the big fight on New Year's Eve was a fight that he started rather than her just dumping him. It's true that she sold out and didn't return Scott's affections when he said he loved her, it's not clear that she was pure evil after Volume 6.

The part in Volume 4 when Scott sees Nega-Scott, a darker, more malevolent version of himself, after he learns that Roxanne, Ramona's evil ex-girlfriend, had been staying over at Ramona's apartment could have been this, but gets subverted as he quickly disperses it and goes back. He confronts it again in Vol 6, realizing it's his own repression working against him and trying to fight it only makes it worse. After he comes to terms with himself and decides to stop running from painful memories, it stops attacking him.

Gideon's is exposited near the end of Volume 6. He always was a bit of a brilliant but psychologically-stunted prick, but when Ramona dumped him, he went right out of his mind. He then went on a bender and posted a drunken ranting ad on Craigslist, which was then discovered by the other six exes.

Ramona's Bag of Holding. Gee, you think this girl's got a lot of baggage? It's destroyed in the climactic showdown with Gideon, showering its contents everywhere. Afterwards, Ramona isn't interested in gathering up her old stuff. It's hard not to interpret it as a good sign for her relationship with Scott.

Stopped Reading Too Soon: Matthew Patel sends Scott an email explaining the basic plot of the series. Scott skims it before declaring it boring and deletes it, thus Scott is completely blindsided when the first fight over Ramona starts.

Straight Gay: Wallace (who is the most prominent gay character shown) but also his boyfriend Mobile, his friend "Other Scott", Hollie's roommate Joseph, and his new boyfriend Stephen Stills.

Suddenly Always Knew That: Vol 4 has this when Scott earns the Power of Love, before exclaiming "Now I'm glad I picked that longsword proficiency in grade 5!"

Suddenly Sexuality: Stephen Stills realized he was gay (and even came out) near the end of Volume 5, but Scott was completely unaware of it until the last pages of Volume 6. Scott then thinks dating Julie on and off since university finally turned him gay.

Take Our Word for It: In Volume 6, Scott's trying to woo Envy at a party gets so cringey that in the middle of his wooing a text prompt appears that states that the reader has been spared the ugly sight of the rest of Scott's feeble attempts.

Scott does this to his friends a lot in Volume 5, particularly when when Ramona disappears and he bedhops at Stephen Stills's and then Kim's.

There Are No Therapists: It's Volume 6. Scott is devastated from Ramona leaving without an explanation. He is moping around, playing videogames, goofing off on the internet, staying isolated, and trying to forget he has a life to live. What does he do? Go into a wilderness sabbatical and fight Nega-Scott!

Those Two Guys: Julie's friends, Sandra and Monique. Lampshaded in that they're not nearly as popular or cool as they seem to think they are.

Thou Shalt Not Kill: Very much averted, as Scott has absolutely no issues with causing humans to explode into coins, even ones who are at his mercy. Considering that Scott Pilgrim runs on video game logic, it makes perfect sense. Has Mario ever felt guilty about stomping on Goombas?

Threesome Subtext: In Volume 5, while Kim, Ramona, and Scott are all drunk together, Kim says she loves them and Ramona wonders where Kim has been all her life, kissing her on the head. Scott encourages them to make out. Then, as all three leave, Ramona encourages Kim to come sleep in their bed, but she declines.

First he does it in Volume 4, when he mans up and confesses his feelings.

Then, after he is killed in the middle of Volume 6.

Training from Hell: Played for Laughs. Before Scott goes to fight Lucas Lee, he studies up on his moves by watching his movies and does push-ups on the floor while Wallace sits in an armchair playing video games.

The Unfair Sex: Ramona becomes incensed when she learns that Scott was dating her behind Knives' back when she herself dated the Katayanagi Twins behind each others' backs. Not to mention the fact that got angry at Scott for staying at Lisa's sister's place when she let Roxie stay the night at her place. (And actually made out with her, unlike Scott, who remained totally faithful).

Unreliable Narrator: Scott Pilgrim. We find that most of his flashbacks are a mixture of his own repression, to avoid his mistakes and past pain, and Gideon 'spicing up' his boring highschool memories. The big fight where he 'rescued' Kim Pine in high school and won her heart? Scott beating up her current wussy boyfriend. Envy also implies that Scott may not have been as blameless in their breakup as his flashbacks made it seem.

Between Kim and Scott. It's pretty subtle at first, but starts becoming more visible by the third volume and comes to a head by the end of the fifth.

Lisa and Scott. They almost hook up after Lisa questions why they never did. Scott puts a stop to it because he realizes that he's in love with Ramona.

Unsound Effect: All over the place, like STARE! and CLUTCH! and NOD. NOD.

~pause

~unpause

Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Scott has shades of this when you first read the series, due to his extreme manchild tendencies. Fridge Brilliance sets in when you realize that this is actually Scott's main character flaw, and him realizing this is essential to his character development.

The Untwist: In book 6, the final battle has an In-Universe example with a reveal that didn't happen in the way Scott assumed. Hilarity Ensues:

Gideon: I've watched you guys do stuff!

Scott: (realization) You were the cat!

Gideon: I was not the cat!

Scott: THEN WHY WAS IT NAMED GIDEON?!

Gideon: YOU NAMED YOUR CAT GIDEON?!

Ramona: I- I have my own way of working things out!

The Vamp: Inverted. Envy Adams seems to prefer dating evil guys rather than corrupting good ones.

Kim Pine started out as a character in series of comic strips that started years before Scott Pilgrim debuted. Bryan Lee O'Malley did three short comic strips called "Style" which featured characters named Kim Pine and Lisa Miller. You can read them at his site under "Best of My Online Comics" here. The Kim Pine and Lisa Miller in the "Style" strips look NOTHING like their Scott Pilgrim namesakes, and aren't really given distinct personalities, so they are probably better classified as Proto-Kim and Proto-Lisa, much like rabbits from Warner Bros. cartoons from the late 1930s predating the 1940 Tex Avery directorial effort "A Wild Hare" are considered prototypes for Bugs Bunny.

Also, Scott made a cameo in Corey Lewis's graphic novel PENG, which is in continuity with Lewis's series Sharknife.

Villain Song: Matthew Patel gets to sing one when facing off against Scott, complete with his fireballs and demon hipster chicks. S-L-ICK!

We Can Rule Together: This offer is made by Gideon to Scott when it's revealed that Scott qualifies to join the League of Evil Exes, on account of no longer being with Ramona. Scott declines vigorously... and is dead three pages later.

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour: Considering it has the final standoff between Scott and Ramona's final evil ex, this is a given. Scott has to defeat Gideon by means of physical, emotional, and mental warfare; also, for the first time in the series, there's blood, and a lot of it, especially when people get run through with the Power of Love.

Knives: But look at your face! I totally grazed you! Ramona: How appropriate. You fight like a cow.

You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Played with in Ramona's case. Her regular changes of dye and hairstyle hint at her constant drive to run from herself.

You Keep Using That Word: The Hatedom loves to use the word "Hipster" when describing the series in a negative light. While it's true that the series has some hipster undertones, people have abused this word to the extent that using the word as an insult is almost hypocritical in itself, as its meaning somehow became simplified to the point of implying trying to be edgy and cool. Hipsters in general tend to avoid any and all mainstream media, including video games and comic books, and as such they tend to shun the Scott Pilgrim series for being a series of graphic novels heavily laden with video game references. O'Malley and various other people working behind the different media of the series became aware of this association come the series' final days and as such lampshaded it frequently in later works of Scott Pilgrim, such as Ramona wearing a hipster shirt in Volume 6, mooks in the game consisting partly of hipsters, and finally, in the movie, the piece that plays during the final brawl being titled "Death to All Hipsters".

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